Blog Stats

In 1993, the San Francisco Giants famously won 103 games, but didn’t qualify for the National League playoffs.

In the I-75 League, a mid-80-win total is usually good enough to get you in. Last season, every team with a winning record made the playoffs. Since we expanded to 15 teams, the average win total for the sixth-seeded team has been 85.8 wins.

But this year, if the second half matches the first-half pace, 90 wins may not be good enough to secure a playoff spot. And that could happen to more than one team.

At the 80-game mark, no team in the Northbound or Soutbound Division has a better record than the worst team in the Westbound Division. But since our playoff format guarantees playoff spots to all division winners, it’s conceivable that all three wild-card teams could come from the wicked West, and that one or more teams from the West could miss the playoffs despite 90 wins and despite potentially better records than one or both of the other division winners.

All five Westbound clubs posted double-figure win totals in June, led by Boulder, which went 15-5 for the second time this season. The Tree Huggers have stretched their division lead to five games over Destin, which lost two games in the standings despite a 13-7 month. Meanwhile, preseason favorite Superior rebounded with a 12-win month and swung a volley of trades to shore up its bullpen, defense and bench and add a solid third baseman.

Satellite Beach and Applegate, meanwhile, with 45 wins each, find themselves seven back of Boulder, but on pace for 90-win seasons that would give them more wins than Northbound leader Springfield (44 wins, on pace for 88) and match the win total of Southbound leader South Grand Prairie (45/90).

Meanwhile, New New York (44) and Margaritaville (41) also are playing better than .500 ball, giving the league nine clubs with winning records hunting for six playoff positions.

Saturday is considering “Moving Day” on the PGA Tour, and the same could be said for July in the I-75 League. With the trade deadline looming at the end of the month, the buyer-seller distinction remains cloudy for more teams than ever, and July’s performance could be defining.

Boulder is clearly a buyer, but it faces its toughest month yet, with a slate that features Southbound leader SGP (45 wins), Northbound leader Springfield (44 wins), division rival Satellite Beach (45 wins) and Northbound second-place club Margaritaville (41 wins). With that kind of schedule, the wicked West clubs could find themselves in an even tighter race coming out of the month than going into it.